FOMO vs. inspiration. What serves your brand better?

I’ve always held that an inspiring message is more powerful (in the long run) than a fear-based message. But I have struggled with proving it beyond my personal experience. That’s what made a study from mntm research encouraging. Here’s an excerpt:

“How do you hook an audience’s attention and get them to take action? Open your commercial with a fear-based message, a highly effective emotion for driving website visits (49% better Visit Rate than the overall average). This approach, however, does result in 55% lower CVR (conversion rate) than the overall average, so if your goal is conversions, steer clear of fear-based creative.”

The study went on to detail how commercials that opened with a more joyful message still had a strong visit rate, but they also had a higher conversion rate.

Fear will get you attention — but at a price

FOMO (fear of missing out) has proven to get people to click. But I’ve always wondered at what cost? People will click to make sure they aren’t inadvertently doing harm to themselves. Or simply missing out.

But what exactly have we created by using this method to get them to click through? We have put them in a defensive posture. They are trying to stop something bad from happening. If you have any…